by Curry, Edna
“It’s still Johanson, or rather, again. And hello, to you, too,” she muttered. She looked away, hurt at his sarcasm in spite of herself. What had she expected after she’d returned his ring and had gone off to the city—a prodigal son’s fatted calf and a welcome home party? Get real.
And what did he mean, ‘dressed to the nines?’ She was dressed casually, wasn’t she? She’d just worn the mini-heeled pumps she wore every day at the office. Slacks and a sweater weren’t too dressy for an evening with friends. True, Cal and Sam wore work jeans and blue chambray shirts, but Linda was wearing a slacks outfit almost like her own. Maybe not as expensive, and she didn’t wear nail polish, but…
She turned back to Sam, who was hanging Linda’s coat in the closet. Slipping out of her own, she handed it to him, wanting instead to put it back on and leave. Doubt assailed her. She shouldn’t have come. And she’d been planning to seduce this guy? Fat chance. He’d probably laugh at her if she dared try. But she’d come with Linda who had already moved into the dining room and was chatting with Sally. She couldn’t very well ask Linda to leave or walk the dark country roads several miles back to Aunt Cora’s house. She glanced around the large, homey room. There was no escape.
Drawing a deep breath, she lifted her chin and walked past Sam and Cal into the dining room. Much of the dark, heavy furniture was from Sam’s folks, she was sure. But everything was cheery and spotless and the delicious scent of fried chicken lingered in the room. Sally was evidently a good homemaker and she and Sam seemed so happy. Tami’s throat tightened with envy. That was silly. She had everything she wanted, didn’t she? She had a lovely apartment in the city and a good job, well, mostly it was good.
Tami moved to the table where Sally and Linda sat. Somehow, she’d get through the evening. Then she’d make sure she stayed out of Cal’s way until she could return to Minneapolis and forget the past and this arrogant male.
Seating herself next to Linda, she hissed, “Traitor! You could have warned me he’d be here.”
“I thought you knew,” Linda rejoined softly. “It’s a class officers’ meeting, after all.”
Duh! Glancing around, she realized everyone here except Sally, Sam’s wife, had been a senior class officer. Belatedly, she remembered they’d voted to put the class officers in charge of future reunions. Why hadn’t that dawned on her? She’d pushed it out of her memory along with everything else having to do with Cal or Conley, that’s why.
Cal followed her and joined them at the table, still looking unhappy. He picked up his can of beer and tossed back a long swallow.
“Anyone want a beer? Or a cup of coffee?” Sally asked a bit too brightly, her face flushed. Sam, still standing beside her, scowled at his wife.
“Thanks, Sally,” Tami said, her mouth feeling like it had a wad of cotton in it. “Coffee sounds great.”
“I’ll give you a hand,” Sam said, and followed his wife into the kitchen.
Linda’s gaze nervously followed Sam’s stiff back.
“So,” Linda said, obviously trying to break the uncomfortable silence, “how are things going at the store, Cal?”
“Fine.” He glanced at the kitchen, looking like he wanted to escape by following Sam.
“Store?” Tami looked up, frowning.
“Didn’t you know? Cal bought the farm implement store here in Conley after college,” Linda said. “He has the best mechanic in the whole area, too. Tom can fix any piece of machinery that breaks on a farm.”
“Really.” She raised an eyebrow. “I thought Aunt Cora said you were living on your parents’ farm?” Aunt Cora had also said he’d gotten his Ag degree, so she’d assumed he was farming, as his father had. But running a business? She eyed his long, muscular arms and strong and capable hands. He didn’t look like he spent much time behind a desk.
“Yes, I’m living in the house there but after Dad died, we started renting out the land. Mom remarried and they retired to Florida.”
“Oh.”
She swallowed, wishing Sally would hurry up with the coffee. The sight of those hands brought back too many memories of petting in the back seat of his old blue Ford sedan. Nowadays, kids didn’t stop at petting. Sometimes she wished they hadn’t either. If so, would things between them have turned out differently? No, she wouldn’t think about the past.
Linda sighed and opened the manila envelope Sally had left on the table. “Here’s the list of our class members. You take charge of that, Tami. You’re the class secretary.”
“Wha--at? That was ten years ago.”
Cal laughed. “Sam informed me there’s no statute of limitations on our jobs. We’re stuck with them forever.”
Darn the man. He actually sounded pleased she’d been roped into helping with this. Did he think she wasn’t up to it, or what? She tossed him a scowl and he grinned in return. Heat curled inside her as she met his brown eyes. That was only because she was so nervous at suddenly seeing him again. She wasn’t still attracted to him. No way.
~*~
Might as well make the best of it. He was stuck with working with her on this. And he could see she was as nervous in his company as he was in hers, which somehow made him feel better. Let her be nervous. After all, she’d dumped him. Actually, he’d wondered what had happened to her since she’d gone off to the city, besides the marriage and divorce he’d heard about. Now he’d find out.
Most likely, she had a new man on the string. He glanced at her left hand. No ring. And she’d taken back her maiden name after her divorce. That was something, anyway. He hated the idea of her with another man. But that wasn’t fair. He’d married someone else, hadn’t he? He had no right to expect her not to do the same.
Tami took the manila envelope from Linda, opened it and bent her head, seemingly absorbed in its contents.
Sam and Sally returned. Sally poured coffee for the ladies, then settled back, waiting for Cal to lead the discussion at hand.
Sam, looking flushed and embarrassed, sat down and picked up his beer. Under his breath he said, “Sorry, Cal, I didn’t know she was coming.”
Cal nodded to let Sam know he wasn’t mad at him. So, probably the women had set this up. He didn’t think Tami was in on it, though. She’d looked too surprised to see him there. That left Sally and Linda, up to their matchmaking tricks again. How many times had they already tried to set him up with various available women? They couldn’t believe he wasn’t interested in getting married again.
He cleared his throat and said, “I think we should divide up the work on this so we can work separately when we have time rather than trying to do everything as a committee.”
“Okay with me. I’ll take care of the table decorations,” Sally offered. “Memory walls are always fun. Linda, why don’t you hunt up some old pictures and make one of those? I know you have a ton of pictures.”
Tami nodded. “I like that idea! We should have a social hour first, so everyone can mingle and get the hugs and greetings out of the way before dinner.”
“Good idea.”
“After dinner, we can do a round-robin thing where everybody tells where they live and what they’re doing now, too,” Sally said.
“And prizes,” Cal put in. “You know, for the one who came the farthest or has the most kids, and so on.”
“Okay, that’s settled,” Sally agreed. “Next, we need to decide on the menu.”
“You three women can decide on that,” Sam put in. “We men will eat anything, as long as it’s real food. No stuff like creamed chicken in patty shells.”
Sally laughed. “I think I know you guys better than to suggest anything like that.”
Her husband gave her a sideways look. “It never hurts to remind you.”
“We need to track down the people we don’t have addresses for. Maybe make some phone calls to any of their families still in this area,” Cal suggested.
“As class secretary, Tami’s in charge of correspondence and should keep track of that,” Linda declared. “
She brought a new laptop, didn’t you, Tami?”
“Yes,” Tami said, regretting showing it to Linda when she’d come in to greet Cora.
“So, you can do the labels for the invitations and mail them out. We’ll put my return address on the reservations, because I’m the treasurer,” Linda said. “If we ask for a down payment, we won’t get many no-shows. I’ll bank their money and we’ll pay Henry’s Place the deposit when we get a handle on how many are coming.”
“Henry’s Place?” Tami asked in a strangled voice.
“Yes. Didn’t I mention we decided to have the dinner and dance at Henry’s Place?”
“No,” Tami said. “You didn’t.” She stole a glance at Cal but could read nothing in his poker expression. Maybe he didn’t care where they held the reunion, but she did. It still hurt to remember Henry’s Place. She couldn’t go back there. She didn’t want to spend an evening reminiscing about old high school days, especially not at that dance hall. That would only result in compounding the pain and lies of her past. Damn Arlo anyway for getting her into this.
Henry’s Place. The large square building, the raised platform at one end where a variety of small bands had played for dances, had haunted her memories. She’d gone to many of them, and danced the evening away in Cal’s arms. She bit her lip, remembering the loud music and the woodsy aftershave Cal had always favored. She could almost feel the warmth of his arms wrapped around her as they swayed to a slow song. The lights were always dim and couples were so interested in each other no one noticed if their lips occasionally met in a kiss. She swallowed and pushed the vivid memories away. The past was just that-–past.
Sipping her coffee, she searched her mind for an out. “I didn’t bring a printer,” she said knowing it was a lame excuse. Surely someone else would have one and offer it.
In fact, one sat right in the corner of this room, she realized, staring at it.
Sally noticed and said, “I’d offer ours, but I’m quite sure it isn’t compatible with your laptop.”
“Oh,” Tami said, thinking she had the perfect out. Now Sally would offer to do the labels.
“Cal's printer is compatible with your laptop,” Linda piped up. “You can bring your laptop or the disk over to his house when you’re ready to print it out. Can’t she, Cal?”
“Sure,” he said, his voice sounding strangled. He crunched his empty beer can, stared at it, and then carefully put it down on the polished oak table. He cleared his throat. “Bring it to the store. I mean, I keep my computer and printer at the store, not at my house.”
Thank goodness for small favors. At least going to his store was sure to be safer than going to his house.
“Good. That’s settled,” Sally said. “So, let’s put our heads together on which of these people’s addresses we still have to track down. The reunion’s only two months away. We need to get cracking.”
Tami’s nerves stayed on edge through the rest of the long evening. Finally Linda suggested they call it a night.
But Sally insisted on feeding them homemade apple pie topped with cinnamon ice cream before they left.
While Sally and Linda went to the kitchen, Sam turned to the computer in the corner of the room.
“Hey, Cal, let me show you the latest results of the new database I set up to track my milk production. This was the best month so far. I tried a new feeding schedule.”
“Oh, yeah?” Cal’s face lit up with interest. He moved his chair next to Sam’s.
“You keep computer records on each cow’s milk production?” Tami asked, surprised.
Sam turned to her. “Yes. I use it to decide which cows to keep and which to sell. And I keep my breeding records on it to keep track of their blood lines. I have another database on crop yields from various fields and varieties of corn and soybeans. I’m on the computer a lot.”
“You keep track of all of those details?”
Cal interrupted impatiently, “Of course. There’s lots of detail. Why do you think Sam and I went to Ag school? Modern farming is more than backbreaking work pitching manure, tossing hay bales around and driving a tractor, you know.”
“No,” she said crossly. “I didn’t know, Cal. You never told me much about your work.”
He grinned and met her gaze, his eyes telling her he remembered very well what he had or hadn’t told her. “I guess I didn’t. But then, we were having too much fun kissing and...”
“Never mind,” she snapped. She looked away and her face grew warm at the thought and his sudden change of mood. The sudden rush of heat along her veins was disturbing, and not something to be encouraged. The past was past. She didn’t want to be reminded of it. And certainly didn’t want to discuss it with him. Still, she longed to feel his arms around her once more.
LuAnn’s idea of making love to Cal to get him out of her system sprang uncomfortably to mind. It had sounded plausible in Minneapolis, but now that the possibility of actually going for it faced her, Tami felt nothing but panic. How could she make love to him without getting her heart broken again? Once had been enough.
Sam grinned at them both, obviously remembering their high school romance, too. He looked pleased to see them together again. Not that they were actually together, she reassured herself. They were only in the same room.
Tami tried to look disinterested as the men turned back to the computer screen and continued comparing various cows’ milk yields. The discussion of which cows had inherited which great genes from which bulls was way over her head. She felt her face grow hot again as she realized they were discussing artificial insemination. Honestly, was that a subject to discuss so openly in mixed company? They didn’t look embarrassed at all. They acted as though they were talking about something as ordinary as corn seed instead of bull sperm.
Sally’s return with the pie and coffee ended the embarrassing discussion and the men returned to the dining room table where the talk turned to which classmate had married who.
“I’m never going to find these women under their new married names,” Tami realized, groaning. “I haven’t kept up with the local news. You guys have to help with this.”
“Sure,” Sally agreed readily. “We can pool our knowledge. Why don’t we meet for lunch at the cafe in Conley at noon tomorrow? You bring your laptop and we’ll start filling in the blanks. My mom will watch the kids.”
“Perfect,” Tami agreed. Lunch alone with Sally sounded great. But she realized that wasn’t what Sally had in mind.
“You usually eat there anyway, don’t you, Cal?” Sally asked. “So we won’t be taking up any extra time from your work.”
Tami’s heart sank at the thought of eating a nerve-wracking meal with Cal.
Cal nodded, but looked as uncomfortable as she felt. After finishing their pie, the men moved back to Sam’s computer and resumed their discussion.
By the time she and Linda left, Tami felt wrung out. And knew it wouldn’t end there, because she’d been committed to working with Cal on sending out the invitations.
She was going to kill Arlo for getting her into this.
Chapter 3
At noon the next day, Cal strode across the main street of Conley to the cafe.
Through the half-glass of the old wooden door, he could see the lunch crowd had already arrived. The booths in front were all full, and so were the stools at the counter. The blended aromas of fried chicken and beef made his mouth water, reminding him he’d only had instant coffee and a quick bowl of cereal and milk with Bobby at breakfast time.
He didn’t see Sam or any of the women he was to meet, so he walked through to the back dining room.
Linda was seated at a table in the back corner. Tami, evidently also just arriving, was standing beside the table, slipping off a brown leather jacket. Underneath she wore a soft yellow silk blouse and brown corduroy slacks.
She’d always liked sensuous feeling fabrics, he remembered. Even when they were dating, he’d admired her sense of style. Even her underwear had always been
the silky kind. What was he thinking? He pushed the mental images away. He had to stop remembering how those fabrics had felt under his hands.
“Hi,” he said, joining the women. “Sam and Sally aren’t here yet?”
“Hi Cal," Linda answered. "They’re not going to make it today. Sam had to drive Sally’s mom to Mankato for a dental appointment. So she couldn’t baby-sit, and Sally had to stay with the kids. It’s just us three.”
“Oh.” Cal took a seat, trying not to show how disconcerted he was. He was glad Sally had chosen to stay home to care for Bobby and her own two girls. Bobby found changes so upsetting since his mom died, Cal dreaded every time he had to find a new sitter for him, even for a day.
At least Linda had come for lunch, so he wasn’t alone with Tami. Maybe they could get this over with fast and he could get back to work. He didn’t need the aggravation. Being class big-shot in high school had been fun, but it had long since lost its appeal.
However, the lovely blonde sitting across from him sure hadn’t. She was making his heart pound as much as she ever had back then. He had to stop this. He had a business and son to think of now. He couldn't let his hormones ruin his life again. She was a city woman, through and through. No matter she’d been born and raised here in rural Southern Minnesota, same as he had. Just look at her, and notice all that city polish, he reminded himself. The light floral scent of her perfume drifted over to him across the table raising havoc with his senses.
The waitress appeared with coffee and glasses of iced water, then stood waiting for their orders.
“I’ll have the roast beef special,” Cal said.
Tami looked at Linda for guidance. “I’m having the baked chicken and vegetables,” Linda said. “It has fewer calories.”
“I’ll have the same,” Tami said, closing her menu and handing it to the waitress.
The waitress left and Cal blurted out, “Why did you come back, Tami?”
